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Marshall University is a coeducational public research university in Huntington, West Virginia, United States founded in 1837, and named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States.

The university is currently composed of nine undergraduate colleges: College of Business (COB), College of Education and Professional Development (COE), College of Arts and Media (COAM), College of Health Professions (COHP), Honors College, College of Information Technology and Engineering (CITE), College of Liberal Arts (COLA), College of Science (COS), and University College ; three graduate colleges, the general Graduate College, the School of Pharmacy, and the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, a regional center for cancer research which has a national reputation for its programs in rural healthcare delivery. The forensic science graduate program is one of nearly twenty post-graduate-level academic programs in the United States accredited by the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. The University's digital forensics program is the first program in the world to receive accreditation in digital forensics from the Forensic Science Education Programs Accreditation Commission (FEPAC). The College of Business has achieved AACSB accreditation.

Marshall University has a non-residential branch campus, focused on graduate education, in South Charleston, the Marshall University - South Charleston Campus, which also offers classes throughout the southern half of the state, including at the Erma Byrd Higher Education Center in Beckley. It also offers undergraduate courses, under three "centers", the Southern Mountain Center, operating on the campuses of the Southern West Virginia Community College in Logan and Williamson and at the YMCA in Gilbert; the Mid-Ohio Valley Center in Point Pleasant and the Teays Valley Center in Hurricane. Marshall University also operates the Robert C. Byrd Institute, with operations on both the Huntington and South Charleston campuses, as well as in Fairmont, West Virginia, and Rocket Center, West Virginia. The goal of the Institute is the transfer of technology from the academic departments to private industry to support job development in the region.

On the evening of November 14, 1970, the Thundering Herd football team, along with coaches and fans, was returning home to Huntington from Kinston, North Carolina. The team had just lost a game 17–14 against the East Carolina University Pirates at Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina. The chartered Southern Airways Flight 932 crashed on approach to the Tri-State Airport after clipping trees just west of the runway and impacting, nose-first, into a hollow. All seventy-five people on board were killed, including 37 players and 5 coaches. 13 members of the team, as well as the members of the freshman football team, who were not eligible to play varsity under NCAA rules at that time, were not passengers.

The following season a new head coach, Jack Lengyel, was hired. The leaders of the "Young Thundering Herd" (to which the team officially changed its name for the 1971 season) were the few players who did not make the trip due to injury or disciplinary action. Additionally, there were 15 sophomores from the previous year's freshman team. The squad was also composed of freshmen players who were allowed to play at the varsity level due to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, college football's governing body, waiving a rule prohibiting it. Three years later, it would waive the rule for all schools. Completing the squad were players from other Marshall sports programs. They would win only two games in 1971. Their first win was an emotional 15–13 victory against Xavier University in the home opener. Their second win, in their homecoming game, was against the Bowling Green State University Falcons.

A fountain and plaza at the center of the school campus is dedicated to the seventy-five victims. The water does not flow from November 14 until the first day of spring football practice the following year. The tragedy and its aftermath were the subject of several documentaries, including the award-winning Marshall University: Ashes to Glory. The tragedy and the rebuilding efforts were dramatized in the 2006 Warner Brothers feature, We Are Marshall which opened in Huntington a week before its national release date. Many scenes in the movie were filmed on the campus and throughout Huntington.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_University